The Altamont Enterprise - Freedom Of Information Lawhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/tags/freedom-information-law
enWesterlo board gets lashing, authorizes borrowing for millionshttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/06102015/westerlo-board-gets-lashing-authorizes-borrowing-millions
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/marcello-iaia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Marcello Iaia</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/4913" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/DSC02628.JPG?itok=tXBih_jB" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/DSC02628.JPG?itok=-1BnSp0D" width="300" height="233" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia</p>
<p><strong>Aline Galgay,</strong> bond counsel and attorney for the Westerlo Town Board, speaks during the June 2 meeting, with Supervisor Richard Rapp in the background. Galgay noted the money won’t be borrowed until just before it’s needed.<br />
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>WESTERLO — The town’s highway garage has for years needed repair, and the town board has long talked about how to fix it as the heating bills are high and the town judges who hold court there have dealt with a ceiling that leaks during rainstorms.</p>
<p>Now, time is of the essence, as the board, with Councilman William Bichteman absent, decided, 4 to 0, on June 2 to authorize the borrowing of up to $2.75 million despite calls by some residents to have a public presentation beforehand. About two-thirds would pay to demolish the old garage and build a new one, and about one third would pay to upgrade Town Hall.</p>
<p>“This project will probably be a solid year out from when we wanted to start,” town attorney Aline Galgay said of the board’s option to postpone its vote. “Your numbers are going to be different.”</p>
<p>Engineers will publicly present conceptual designs for the garage’s replacement and a renovation of the town hall on June 16, and, Galgay noted, anyone who opposes the project can gather signatures and force a public referendum.</p>
<p>Galgay also described to the gallery of about 30 residents how the board met without public notice and directed the town clerk to withhold documents related to the project — both in violation of state laws based on public access to government business. Galgay said, once she learned of the violations, she informed the public officials.</p>
<p>Board members considered themselves a building committee and toured the town hall and highway garage with engineers twice in the fall, Frederick Grober of Delaware Engineering, told The Enterprise. Meeting minutes show one mention of the building committee in January, when the board voted to act as the committee with the highway superintendent.</p>
<p>Galgay was responding to a question from John Sefcik, a zoning board of appeals member who, with his wife, Dianne Sefcik, takes notes at town board meetings. She and Lisa Joslin, also a vocal resident during the June 2 meeting, said they and Tracey Lawson have talked about organizing a petition to force a public referendum.</p>
<p>Sefcik and Joslin said their roles were mainly in researching the process and preparing paperwork. Tracey Lawson's father, Edwin Lawson, is the town's code enforcement officer. He told The Enterprise he has no involvement in the project, for which he was advising the town board until it had a frustrating discussion last fall and decided to consider replacement instead of repair. Lawson believes the engineers for the replacement haven't accounted for the asbestos that is in the garage's insulation.</p>
<p>On June 2, Grober stood in front of the board, facing the audience, as he explained the background of the resolution, and he was peppered with questions and comments from residents.</p>
<p>He said an average cost to taxpayers of $100 per year was used as a starting point, to develop an overall budget for the project, and to estimate the borrowing limit, which is now $2.75 million. The average assessment used to calculate the average cost, Grober said, was $1,418.34, which includes commercial and industrial properties.</p>
<p>Before the highway garage is demolished and replaced with a similar structure, Grober said, the town hall will be renovated to have a new heating system, better insulation, access for people with disabilities, and accommodations for the town court and State Police officers, both now housed in the highway building. The plan for the new garage calls for five bays and a total of 8,900 square feet, Grober said.</p>
<p>Grober said the estimated costs are $893,000 for the renovation of the town hall, which was built as a school, and $1.8 million for the garage. The projects haven’t been designed and the money hasn’t been borrowed.</p>
<p>“It depends on, when we design this, how much are we going to put into it,” said Grober when a resident asked for the cost of each project.</p>
<p>The board received bids last fall for repairing the highway garage, which came in so high, it decided to ask a new engineering firm to look at replacement. The architectural firm’s services cost the town $33,000, Councilman Al Field said, while Delaware Engineering is charging $25,000 for the planning.</p>
<p>Edwin Stevens, a member of the town’s planning board, listed all the steps the board had gone through evaluating the highway garage’s fate. He spoke in support of going forward with building a new garage as several residents complained about having little input.</p>
<p>“At a certain point in time, you’ve got to cut bait and move on to the next thing,” Stevens said, “and I think that’s at the point we’re at, with the other firm here, right now.”</p>
<p>When bids were opened in the fall for repairing the highway garage, they were near $500,000, much higher than the town board anticipated. At that point, the board was split, choosing instead to investigate replacement. Frustrated, Code Enforcement Officer Lawson said he’d been involved in the discussions for 10 years and would no longer continue, warning that the cost of replacement would be too high for the town to bear.</p>
<p>For the renovations to the town hall, Supervisor Richard Rapp has said almost $70,000 is available, left over from a grant used to purchase the building for $145,000 in 2011.</p>
<p>“I’d feel better about this if we saw some better ongoing maintenance over the years,” said resident Allan Clickman at the June 2 meeting.</p>
<p>Correcting a comment from the audience about a public vote, Grober said the board would vote on the project, as representatives of the residents.</p>
<p>“Like hell,” Dianne Sefcik said from her seat in the gallery. “They don’t represent me.”</p>
<p>Sefcik said she supports the upgrades to town buildings but objects to how suddenly the bond authorization was announced and that the public hadn’t yet been included. (See her <a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/06112015/clock-ticking-public-weigh-275m-project">letter to the editor</a>.)</p>
<p>Councilman Field disagreed, saying the project had been discussed at meetings. Councilman Theodore Lounsbury said he keeps track of when Sefcik, who has been outspoken, attends board meetings and said she hadn’t been to every one.</p>
<p>Sefcik stressed her contention was with the lack of planning and public awareness in the process.</p>
<p>“The court’s been leaking for years — how could that be?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Instead of us being able to talk in town, our town board went ahead with the process of possibly bonding, without saying to the public ‘Get on board with us,’” Joslin said during the meeting.</p>
<hr /><p><em>Updated on June 11, 2015, to include comments from Edwin Lawson.</em></p>
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</div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">June 10, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/westerlo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Westerlo</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/building-project" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">building project</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/bond" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">bond</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/open-meetings-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Open Meetings Law</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-4" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/freedom-information-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Freedom Of Information Law</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 11 Jun 2015 03:21:03 +0000admin6211 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comThe sun can't shine in Westerlo until public servants stop breaking the lawhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/06102015/sun-cant-shine-westerlo-until-public-servants-stop-breaking-law
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>“If the broad light of day could be let in upon men’s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects.”</em></p>
<p>— Louis D. Brandeis, United States Supreme Court associate justice</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Town board members are lawmakers; they should not be lawbreakers.</p>
<p>In Westerlo, town board members have recently broken both of New York State’s sunshine laws. Perhaps the most famous thought on such laws is that expressed in 1913 by Louis D. Brandeis who later served on the United States Supreme Court: “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant.”</p>
<p>New York has two sunshine laws. The Open Meetings Law went into effect in 1977, giving the public the right to attend meetings of public bodies, like town boards, to listen to debates and watch the decision-making process in action. It requires public bodies to provide notice of the times and places of meetings, and to keep minutes of all actions taken.</p>
<p>“It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that the public business be performed in an open and public manner and that the citizens of this state be fully aware of and able to observe the performance of public officials and attend and listen to the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy,” states the legislative declaration in the Open Meetings Law.</p>
<p>The Freedom of Information Law, which went into effect in 1978, reaffirms citizens’ rights to know how their government operates. “It provides rights of access to records reflective of governmental decisions and policies that affect the lives of every New Yorker,” says the description by the state’s Committee on Open Government.</p>
<p>In Westerlo, the town board has talked for years about how to fix its decrepit highway garage. Town offices moved to the former Westerlo School in 2011, leaving the town court at the garage with a roof that leaks, sometimes in the middle of court sessions.</p>
<p>The board decided on June 2 to borrow to $2.8 million to renovate the town hall and build a new garage despite calls by some residents to have a public presentation beforehand. The old buildings have been ailing for years. The board had plenty of time to go about the project in the right way, allowing for public input.</p>
<p>After the May 19 town board meeting, when the $2.8 million figure was first discussed, Enterprise Hilltown reporter Marcello Iaia requested documents outlining cost estimates. Documents before a board, as these were, should be available to the public. The town’s clerk, Kathleen Spinnato, said town board members had advised her not to release the documents due to the tentative nature of financial information.</p>
<p>The law defines “record” as “any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, with or for an agency...in any physical form whatsoever.” The law also lists a dozen circumstances under which documents can be withheld — such as resulting in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, or revealing trade secrets. None of the exceptions apply here.</p>
<p>Estimates of what taxpayers would have to pay to build or restore their town buildings is certainly a matter of public concern and should have been released by the town. As Westerlo’s Freedom of Information Law officer, Clerk Spinnato should be well versed in the law. That is her job, independent of any stipulations board members may try to impose upon her.</p>
<p>Spinnato took an oath of office to uphold the law. So, too, did town board members. The supervisor, Richard Rapp, has been in office for more than 40 years; certainly, he should be aware of the state laws that were adopted during his tenure.</p>
<p>All of the Westerlo Town Board members violated that state’s Open Meeting Law when they met without public notice as a so-called “building committee” to twice tour the town hall and highway garage with engineers working up plans.</p>
<p>The Open Meetings Law states, “The people must be able to remain informed if they are to retain control over those who are their public servants.” What kind of control do the citizens of Westerlo have if town buildings are toured and plans for them are discussed at illegal meetings?</p>
<p>The law-breaking was revealed at the June 2 town board meeting when a citizen who regularly attends, John Sefcik, asked, “When did you guys discuss this?”</p>
<p>The town attorney, Aline Galgay, responded, “The board was under a mistaken impression that, because they were functioning as a committee, it was different...than their capacity as a town board.”</p>
<p>Say what?</p>
<p>The law is clear that any gathering of a quorum to discuss town business is a meeting for which there must be notice so the public can attend. We find it hard to believe board members can’t grasp this basic concept.</p>
<p>Other public bodies are remiss in following the law — Berne-Knox-Westerlo, for example, has yet to fulfill a Freedom of Information Law request Iaia made in December, and requires FOIL requests for packets used at meetings, which arrive when they are no longer useful — but Westerlo has a long and egregious history of breaking or evading the law.</p>
<p>In January 2013, two Westerlo Town Board members voted to fill a board vacancy. By state law, a majority of a board — that is three members of a five-member town board — is needed to take action. Rapp said the illegal appointment would stand.</p>
<p>The tax rolls in Westerlo are badly skewed, again in violation of state standards, since a townwide re-evaluation has not been conducted in well over half a century — most properties in Westerlo have taxable values under $3,000. This means newcomers are paying a disproportionate share of taxes.</p>
<p>Many times over the years, Westerlo has violated the state law that requires a town’s preliminary budget be filed by Sept. 30; the town board must be presented with a tentative budget by Oct. 5, at which point the board adopts a tentative plan; and the final budget must be adopted by Nov. 20.</p>
<p>This timeline gives citizens who care a chance to review the proposed spending plan and make their views known.</p>
<p>We’ll end where we began, with some wise counsel from Justice Brandeis: “The most important political office,” he said, “is that of the private citizen.”</p>
<p>We commend the Westerlo citizens who show up at meeting after meeting. They care enough to ask questions that unravel the shroud behind which the board, like a private club rather than an elected public body, often operates.</p>
<p>We urge residents to petition for a permissive referendum on the bond to update the town hall and build a new highway garage — 25 signatures are required. If board members had followed the laws, the citizens might have retained control over their public servants, as the statute states. At least with a referendum, the public will, finally, have control.</p>
<p><em>— Melissa Hale-Spencer</em></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">June 10, 2015</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/westerlo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Westerlo</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/open-meetings-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Open Meetings Law</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/freedom-information-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Freedom Of Information Law</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/open-government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">open government</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 11 Jun 2015 03:07:00 +0000admin6209 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comOfficials dispute statements in 'R'ville' newsletterhttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/news/hilltowns/04172014/officials-dispute-statements-rville-newsletter
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<p><strong>Marie Dermody,</strong> one of three editors of a new community newsletter in Rensselaerville, awaits results on a long-past Election Night. Dermody, a former town supervisor, defended the e-mail newsletter at the April town board meeting when town officials said it had inaccurate information.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>RENSSELAERVILLE — In its second issue, in April, a community newsletter co-edited by the town’s former supervisor, Marie Dermody, prodded elected officials who responded during the town board meeting by describing it as inaccurate.</p>
<p>Dermody says the disputed information is true and she does not plan on addressing the criticism in the next issue.</p>
<p>“I think the people who have put together this newsletter should be cautious about turning this into a political thing,” Jack Long, who serves on the water and sewer committee, said during public discussion at the April 10 meeting. Dermody, a Democrat who resigned in 2012 amid partisan divide, doubts she will run for public office again.</p>
<p>The current board has two Conservatives, one Republican, one Independence Party member, and a Democratic councilman who ran on all four lines.</p>
<p>The three women who edited the now-defunct town’s newsletter previously — Dermody, Georgette Koenig, and Nancy Class — edit the <em>R’ville Community Newsletter</em>.</p>
<p>“Our premise is to tell the truth and let people decide what they want about it,” Dermody told <em>The Enterprise</em>.</p>
<p>Dermody said 122 people currently subscribe by e-mail to the two-month-old publication and supposed many more read it. About 1,800 people live in Rensselaerville. Dermody said she called the two other women who previously edited the town newsletter when she “realized we weren’t going anywhere at the town level.”</p>
<p>The town board formed a newsletter committee to look into filling the void left by a printed and mailed town newsletter cut from the budget for 2013. During its April meeting, the board voted not to take any action on recommendations from the committee, in order to further investigate its options.</p>
<p>The committee’s two recommendations were that the community newsletter publish minutes and calendar items from the town or that the town produce its own newsletter. </p>
<p>Councilwoman Marion Cooke said the town should have control over the newsletter, to make sure it’s accurate. She said she couldn’t endorse the option of working with Dermody’s newsletter because it recently had inaccurate information.</p>
<p>“Every attempt is made to be truthful in that newsletter, and if we ever have anything that’s not truthful we expect that people are going to bring it to our attention and rescind it in the next one and make a public apology for our mistake,” Dermody said during the meeting.</p>
<p>The April newsletter tells readers of Councilman Robert Bolte’s sale of a paper shredder to the town for $250 and suggests a better deal could have been found elsewhere.</p>
<p>“Did you know…that $250 in taxpayer money was paid to a Town Councilman for the purchase of a used paper shredder for Town Hall despite the fact that new, professional micro-cut paper shredders with extended warranties are available in the retail marketplace for the same money, if not less?” the newsletter says. “And there is no evidence that any research was done with regard to the make, model, age, or current value of the unit purchased.”</p>
<p>Bolte said during the meeting that a commercial shredder ordered by the town previously had arrived broken and that he researched the value of the one he sold the town. He referred to the town board’s previous purchases, of trucks and highway department machinery, for low prices.</p>
<p>“Instead of nailing somebody,” Bolte said during the meeting, “people ought to do a little more research on it and be a little more honest about it.”</p>
<p>Bolte wasn’t named in the blurb. A similar note appears a second time, referring to the highway superintendent — again without naming the incumbent, Randall Bates — and his full-time salary for part-time hours.</p>
<p>Bates began his report to the town board on April 10 by responding to the newsletter blurb, which referred to him as the highest paid elected official. His budgeted salary is $42,300. He said his deputy, who isn’t elected or salaried, earned more than he did last year due to overtime and explained the long hours checking roads — seven days a week in the winter totaling more than 40 hours — as part of his job.</p>
<p> “In no way is it a part-time position,” said Bates.</p>
<p>“The board is not faulting you and I have not had any complaints from taxpayers, other than what appears in the newsletter,” Supervisor Valerie Lounsbury told Bates.</p>
<p>Most of the newsletter’s space in April was taken by highlights of meeting minutes; community event listings; letters to the editor; free advertisements; and articles on a local festival, the historical society, and the library’s events for National Poetry Month.</p>
<p>Dermody has attended town meetings regularly since the beginning of the year, often commenting and asking questions. She said she began attending meetings when she learned that the town board wanted to exclude paid advertisements, letters, and political content in any potential newsletter.</p>
<p>“If they give the townspeople what they want, we will stop printing,” Dermody told <em>The Enterprise</em> of a regular newsletter that doesn’t have such restrictions.</p>
<p>At the town board meeting in March, Dermody spoke about her repeated attempts to obtain copies of meeting minutes, weeks after they were legally required to be available. She said she was sympathetic to the learning demands on the new town clerk, Victoria Kraker, who took office in January. Kraker apologized to Dermody during the meeting for not keeping track of her Freedom Of Information Law request.</p>
<p>“I’m hoping now that we’re all caught up with each other, that no other taxpayer has to go through this rigamarole to get public documents that are readily available” Dermody said during the March meeting, thanking Kraker for her politeness.</p>
<p>“I just think it’s ironic that a former town supervisor who had annual reports that were years late in violation of state law that got the town in a fine situation is complaining about public minutes that are months late,” Rich Amedure, chairman of the planning board, said after Dermody.</p>
<p>The town’s financial reports up to 2011, found to be late in a 2013 audit report from the state comptroller’s office, were updated after its findings. But, as of March 31 this year, the town’s financial reports for 2012 and 2013 had not been updated with the state, said Brian Butry, a spokesman for the comptroller’s office.</p>
<h3><strong>Other business</strong></h3>
<p>In other business during the April 10 meeting, the town board:</p>
<p>— Heard from resident Ernest Kuehl that the Middleburgh library is holding its budget vote on April 22. Voters will cast their ballots at the library between noon and 8 p.m. on the annual budget and three trustee seats;</p>
<p>— Denied, 5 to 0, a request to use the senior bus on a trip to the Bronx Zoo on April 23, citing potential liability and the town’s policy of specific uses for the bus;</p>
<p>— Read a thank you letter from the Westerlo Volunteer Fire Department for its use of the senior bus;</p>
<p>— Accepted, 5 to 0, bids from Royal Flush Portables in Clarksville for portable toilets in the town’s parks;</p>
<p>— Authorized, 5 to 0, the trip of Lounsbury and Sara Hunt, her clerk, to an annual town finance school held by the Association of Towns on May 8 and 9, for $200 registration each;</p>
<p>— Postponed, 5 to 0, the advertising of clerk positions in order to update the job descriptions;</p>
<p>— Approved, 5 to 0, the rental of a sweeper for the highway department for $1,650;</p>
<p>— Heard from Operator Doug Story that the water treatment system for the hamlet of Rensselaerville filtered about 512,000 gallons for the month of March, and about 79,000 gallons of sewage was pumped. Story said it was unusual to have to clean the system’s filter twice in one month, but said it was probably due to the volume of water.</p>
<p>Councilman Bolte said the water district should be prepared for state roadwork this summer. He said the Department of Transportation told officials that any necessary adaptations of the water system to the new road would be the responsibility of the district;</p>
<p>— Scheduled, 5 to 0, that the board would have special meetings on April 29 and May 14 at 7 p.m., to review zoning regulations, and on May 22 at 7 p.m., to discuss the procedures of the board of ethics;</p>
<p>— Authorized, 5 to 0, upgrading two new computers and the wiping and reloading of two others, for $3,013;</p>
<p>— Read a letter from Brain Wood, emergency medical services coordinator for the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, regarding a meeting on May 27 to discuss EMS coverage among volunteer agencies;</p>
<p>— Voted, 5 to 0, to enter executive session to discuss potential litigation; and</p>
<p>— Voted, 5 to 0, to accept bids for highway materials.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">April 17, 2014</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/rensselaerville" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Rensselaerville</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/newsletter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">newsletter</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/freedom-information-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Freedom Of Information Law</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/town-board" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">town board</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 17 Apr 2014 22:11:57 +0000admin2723 at http://www.altamontenterprise.comRensselaerville continues to comb ethics law after first casehttp://www.altamontenterprise.com/news/hilltowns/02272014/rensselaerville-continues-comb-ethics-law-after-first-case
<div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">by <a href="/author/marcello-iaia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Marcello Iaia</a></div><div class="field field-name-field-images field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-images clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-images/1719" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/cropped%20DSC07537.JPG?itok=hX5hpowm" rel="lightbox[field_image][]" title=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.altamontenterprise.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/cropped%20DSC07537.JPG?itok=FWN8YcET" width="300" height="166" alt="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-description field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia</p>
<p><strong>Privileged:</strong> Rensselaerville town Attorney Thomas Fallati responds to requests from a former supervisor, Marie Dermody, for documents being discussed by the board at a Feb. 18 meeting about the procedures of the ethics board. Fallati cited attorney-client privilege and Supervisor Valerie Lounsbury, left, said a document before board members contained sensitive information describing the town’s first ethics investigation.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>RENSSELAERVILLE<span> — A more detailed timeline and defendant protections for ethics investigations were discussed by the town council and its attorney on Feb. 18 with the hope that any future cases would be less expensive and more streamlined than the first.</span></p>
<p>Following the board of ethics’ first case, deemed unfounded in 2012, the town has sought to clarify its procedures for investigating complaints against Rensselaerville employees and officials. The board’s <a href="http://altamontenterprise.com/news/hilltowns/10312013/ethics-case-investigated-assessor-giving-parents-exemptions" target="_blank">investigation of an assessor</a> processing family tax exemptions lasted seven months and incurred expenses because it hired a lawyer.</p>
<p>Since the case, the board has not made any amendments to the code of ethics.</p>
<p>Town Attorney Thomas Fallati addressed recommendations made by the five-member board of ethics in March last year and others submitted by town board members Jack Kudlack and Margaret Sedlmeir.</p>
<p>He said a time period could be set for the ethics board’s future investigations, which could be extended by town board approval.</p>
<p>“I think this is where we ran into problems before,” Supervisor Valerie Lounsbury said during the meeting. “And I think that they did have problems getting people in so they could, you know, question them, and try to get through everything they had to get through, but it went on for quite some time.”</p>
<p>The town’s code of ethics, adopted in 2008, currently allows up to 90 days for an investigation, but doesn’t provide any process for extending it. The board also discussed a defined window of time for a complaint to be filed — 90 to 120 days after the action or 30 days from its discovery — and 10 days for the board of ethics to hold an initial meeting to determine whether or not a complaint has probable cause. Its decision then, as to whether or not legal counsel for the ethics board is necessary, would be subject to town board approval.</p>
<p>Lounsbury said the board would need at least 10 days to publish a legal notice for the initial meeting.</p>
<p>“That’s true, although, as a practical matter, they’re going to be able to go into executive session, given the nature of it,” Fallati said, referring to a public meeting made private. “But you do want to honor the noticing of it.”</p>
<p>Georgette Koenig, a co-chair of the ethics board, said from the gallery that schedule conflicts like planned vacations added weeks of time to the first investigation.</p>
<p>“The town board had no idea why this thing was always going over the time limit,” said Councilman Robert Bolte.</p>
<h3><strong>Procedures and expenses</strong></h3>
<p>Fallati said the code should be explicit in allowing parties to cross-examine witnesses and present evidence, though this was done for the recent case.</p>
<p>The board of ethics had said it operated without a clear a standard and burden of proof. Fallati said that a lower standard is typical for administrative proceedings, called substantial evidence, describing it as “a good amount of evidence to support the allegation.” The criminal standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said, would be too burdensome for the board of volunteers to maintain. He added that the state law governing ethics boards doesn’t mandate which standard is used.</p>
<p>Supervisor Valerie Lounsbury asked whether the town is obligated to reimburse, or indemnify, any legal expenses a defendant incurs. The town’s current code makes no provision for indemnification.</p>
<p>“I think we’ve all learned something by the first case we had,” said Lounsbury, adding that it involved extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>“We can’t say anything about it,” said Lounsbury. “But it was like, it kind of gave everybody a different outlook.”</p>
<p>A defendant found guilty of an ethics complaint should pay for his or her own expenses, Bolte and Lounsbury agreed. Lounsbury said, with taxpayers’ money, the town should be careful to limit the costs incurred. Rates and circumstances for reimbursement could be set out in the law, Fallati said.</p>
<p>Bolte asked why anyone found not guilty would have to pay at all.</p>
<p>“If you didn’t help employees that were accused wrongly, you’d have nobody that’d want to run for any office in the town,” Bolte said.</p>
<p>In its review, the board of ethics asked whether hearsay should be considered in its investigations.</p>
<p>“My recommendation would actually be that you allow that, that you do not employ the rule of evidence,” Fallati said, noting hearsay could be given less weight and would require professional advice to ignore.</p>
<p>He said the code should specify records given to parties be written transcripts. The board had asked whether or not former employees could be compelled to testify, but Fallati expressed doubt that such a rule could be enforced.</p>
<p>“We can’t forget that we are not judge and jury here,” Lounsbury said.</p>
<p>Referring to another recommendation, Fallati agreed that the findings should be kept confidential.</p>
<p>The code now says, “The complaint, records, and other proceedings related thereto shall remain confidential until the Board of Ethics makes a recommendation for action to the Town Board or dismisses the complaint.”</p>
<p>“We don’t interpret that to mean it becomes public at that point,” Fallati said after the Feb. 18 meeting of the provision.</p>
<p>Fallati told <em>The Enterprise</em> on Wednesday that the board’s discussion hadn’t addressed whether or not a finding of cause would be subject to disclosure, but it would be clarified later.</p>
<p>“Both as to the old case and any amendment going forward, and I believe the board shares this view, if there is a negative finding…then, yes, it would be kept confidential permenantly,” said Fallati.</p>
<h3><strong>Flow of info</strong></h3>
<p>Sitting in the gallery before Fallati arrived from a snowy drive, former town supervisor Marie Dermody asked the board if documents before council members were available for people in the audience to follow the discussion.</p>
<p>“By law, you have to,” Dermody said, after Lounsbury said none were available. Dermody cited the state’s Open Meetings Law.</p>
<p>Fallati said his legal memo to the board was privileged, but Lounsbury held up a packet of the ethics board’s draft recommendations and made copies of it for the four in the audience and sat down again.</p>
<p>“I’ll have to have those back, those copies,” Lounsbury said, retrieving the papers. “The reason being is that there is a cover letter here that I do not think that we should distribute because of information in it that relates to the case that we reviewed, and that should not be public.”</p>
<p>In an article published in <em>Municipal Lawyer</em> in 2008, Robert Freeman, the director of the Department of State’s Committee on Open Government, outlined the application of the Open Meetings Law and the Freedom Of Information Law to boards of ethics. He wrote that ethics boards, as public bodies, are subject to requirements of posting notices for meetings and taking minutes, including executive sessions.</p>
<p>Reasons for withholding documents relevant for ethics boards, Freeman wrote, fall under the FOIL provision for protection from unwarranted invasions of personal privacy. Records can be subject to that protection if ethics charges are dismissed, without merit, or don’t result in disciplinary action, Freeman wrote, or if the records are irrelevant to the performance of official duties; the identity of the complainant may be withheld for the same reason.</p>
<p>Records that are considered “intra-agency materials” can be withehld, according to the law, which Freeman wrote describes the opinion or recommendations following an ethics investigation.</p>
<p>Once the board, like the town council, responsible for the final decision adopts an opinion as its own, however, it becomes a final agency determination and could be disclosed if it finds misconduct.</p>
<p>The town board agreed to schedule a follow-up meeting at its regular one in March.</p>
<p>In addition to its procedures, the board of ethics made recommendations for changes in the assessors’ office. None of those recommendations were discussed on Feb. 18.</p>
<p>Lounsbury told <em>The Enterprise</em> that the town board suggested to the assessors that all three sign off on each exemption application and that their records are kept more securely.</p>
<p>“I’m sure they’re much more conscious,” she said.</p>
<h3><strong>Other business</strong></h3>
<p>In recent meetings, the town board:</p>
<p>— Approved, 4 to 0, a transfer from the retirement fund to the unemployment fund to cover a 2013 expense, and a $300 transfer from supervisor’s miscellaneous contractual fund for a new printer.</p>
<p>Councilwoman Margaret Sedlmeir was absent during the Feb. 13 meeting;</p>
<p>— Heard Lounsbury read a card from former town Clerk Kathleen Hallenbeck, thanking the town board for a retirement reception, gifts, and for engraving her name on a plaque.</p>
<p>“I have so many good memories to reflect on,” Lounsbury read;</p>
<p>— Heard Lounsbury describe procedures initated between Highway Superintendent Randall Bates and Middleburgh Central School District for communicating about road conditions. She read a letter from the district’s superintendent, Michele Weaver.</p>
<p>Bates had told the school recently that his crew needed additional time to clear the roads before buses arrived at homes in Rensselaerville. Lounsbury read that seven children couldn’t be transported that day;</p>
<p>— Approved, 4 to 0, a motion to charge one dollar for each incoming fax. The town already charges for each outgoing fax;</p>
<p>— Heard from Lounsbury that Victoria Kraker, the town’s new clerk will be acting as secretary to the water and sewer committee.</p>
<p>“That’s because that’s a salaried position, that’s always been paid to the town clerk,” Lounsbury said. “And we can’t pay money out of the general fund for a special district, so we have to keep it that way”;</p>
<p>— Heard the 2013 annual report from Mark Overbaugh, the town’s building inspector and code enforcement officer.</p>
<p>The building department processed permits for six home repairs, one home replacement, four renewals, seven solar systems, three new homes, 13 new accessory buildings, one deck, two home additions, four agricutlral-use buildings, one commercial building, and two septic sytems.</p>
<p>“The cost of the permits was only $2,698.47,” said Overbaugh. “I know we talked about that doesn’t quite — ” he said, interrupting himself and looking at Lounsbury.</p>
<p>When asked about the unfinished statement, Overbaugh told <em>The Enterprise</em> that he couldn’t explain because it was between him and Lounsbury. Lounsbury said she didn’t recall the moment, when asked later;</p>
<p>— Heard from Assessor Richard Tollner that about a dozen residents have not yet been reached in the town’s effort to inform people of the need to register with the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance to continue receiving Basic School TAx Relief exemptions.</p>
<p>He said his office found veterans who had not filed for a veterans’ tax exemption. Board members asked about their control over the exemption and Tollner said he would research the topic;</p>
<p>— Heard from Douglas Story, the town’s water and sewer treatment officer, that the water system filtered an average of 18,200 gallons per day in January. He said the sewer treatment pumped an average of 5,500 gallons per day.</p>
<p>“So, obviously, a big discrepancy, still,” Story said. “Fortunately, nothing that shut us down,” he added, suggesting he forsees no major issues until after winter.</p>
<p>He said he would look into sharing costs of shipping water samples for testing with the town of Westerlo, where he is also a water-treatment officer. Story has had trouble getting the samples to a lab in Albany through shipping services.</p>
<p>Lounsbury said she would attend water committee meetings, in place of Sedlmeir, who can no longer attend;</p>
<p>— Heard from Lounsbury that contracts with the town’s three fire departments and ambulance had been signed;</p>
<p>— Re-appointed, 4 to 0, Maryanne Overbaugh to a new term on the board of ethics, from Feb. 14, 2014 until Dec. 31, 2019;</p>
<p>— Accepted, 4 to 0, Chris Schiralli, John Delia Jr., and Ethan Willsie as new members to the Rensselaerville Fire Company.</p>
<p>— Endorsed, 4 to 0, the application of the Carey Institute for Global Good in Rensselaerville for a grant from the Hudson River Valley Greenway. The funds would help its project to erect a “brewshed” that will serve as a farm brewery and resource for business planning.</p>
<p>— Approved, 4 to 0, the purchase of a paper shredder from Bolte for $250 at the Jan. 9 meeting. Bolte abstained.</p>
<p>“It’s just like brand new and I’ll warrantee it,” said Bolte.</p>
<p>— Accepted, 4 to 0, a disclosure from Councilwoman Marion Cooke that she is employed by G &amp; H Lumber, a vendor with the town. Cooke abstained.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-post-date field-type-ds field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Post date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">February 27, 2014</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Tags: </h3><ul class="links inline"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/rensselaerville" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Rensselaerville</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/board-ethics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">board of ethics</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/ethics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ethics</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-3" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/town-board" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">town board</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-4" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/town-attorney" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">town attorney</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-5" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/open-meetings-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Open Meetings Law</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-6" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/freedom-information-law" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Freedom Of Information Law</a></li></ul></div><div class="easy_social_box clearfix vertical easy_social_lang_und">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 27 Feb 2014 22:34:22 +0000admin2361 at http://www.altamontenterprise.com